Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Conquering coffee leaf rust, one farm at a time

By Heather Farrell

The air cools as we pass through La Zona Alta – The High Zone – on our way to Pedro Mejia’s coffee
farm. The Honduran village is appropriately named – we’re level with the clouds
that still cling to the mountains across the valley, remnants of last night’s
thunderstorm. My coworker, Pedro Hernández, guides the motorcycle carefully on
the damp dirt roads. We’re meeting Mejia to walk his field with him and do a
leaf analysis that will identify disease prevalence and nutrient deficiencies
on his farm.

Pedro Mejia holds up a rust-affected leaf.

Mejia has worked with Unión MicroFinanza for years,
participating in our microloan program and selling us his specialty-grade
coffee. But Mejia’s past harvest, like so many in Central America, was affected
by the outbreak of coffee leaf rust, known in Spanish as la roya. Now he wants advice on what to do about it.

Mejia knows about leaf rust: he has been to large, general trainings
offered by engineers from coffee organizations in Honduras. But as for a
specialist from any organization coming to his farm to show him what to do in
practice? “Never,” Mejia says. His two fields are less than two acres each, and
the larger organizations do not have the resources to visit small farms like
these.

Unión MicroFinanza has begun
individualized field trainings to meet this need. A majority of the farmers in
this region own small lots; but each finca,
or coffee farm, has different agricultural needs. Coffee leaf rust will not be
brought under control through general trainings, or through educational
materials offered at a price outside the budgets of most coffee farmers. Each
farmer, no matter the size of their field, must know how to control and prevent
the disease from spreading.

“Look, this is lempira – it’s resistant,” Mejia points to
the rust-resistant coffee variety that’s full of leaves and easy to distinguish
on an affected farm. Three-quarters of this finca
is red catuaí, a variety known for its quality, but which is susceptible to
leaf rust. Some of the plants are recovering from leaf rust and have a good
number of leaves, some have only a few leaves hanging on, and some Mejia has
already cut down because they were beyond recovery. Last harvest, only 50
percent of his red catuaí cherries ripened. The rest didn’t ripen because the
plant didn’t have enough leaves to produce energy for ripening the fruit.

Mejia and Hernández conduct a leaf analysis of the farm.

Mejia plunges deeper into his field to show us more plants.
I struggle to keep up, sliding on the loose earth, crashing through dead
branches, and getting facefuls of spider webs and wet leaves. Hernández shows
Mejia how to perform the leaf analysis – pick 100 leaves from different trees
without looking at them. Then, they examine the sampling, and based on shape
and color irregularities, determine what nutrients the plants lack and what
diseases are present (leaf rust isn’t the only coffee plague: diseases like ojo de gallo can be just as damaging to
leaves, and affect varieties resistant to rust.)

“We recommend you do the analysis each month. The purpose is
to control roya through nutrition and vigilance, to see if it’s going down,”
Hernández says.

After the analysis, we move down the road to Mejia’s second
farm. Right away, we see the plants are dramatically different from those on
his other field. These lush young trees are of the variety yellow catuaí.
Already they are laden with green cherries. I haven’t seen branches of catuaí
trees so full of coffee in a while. Seeing these beautiful young plants, I now
understand why Mejia might consider stumping and replanting on his older field.

The trees on his other farm are 12 years old; they’re tall
and already have most of their expected harvests behind them. Yes, it would be
less time, work and money if they could recover from the leaf rust after a
year. But the time and money put into fighting the disease and trying to
re-grow leaves wouldn’t be worth it; it’d be better to wait the two years
needed for a new plant to produce a harvest. And, as farmers are now fully
aware, preventing a disease like leaf rust is much easier than fighting it off
once it has settled in and done its damage.

I ask Hernández if leaf rust was so bad last harvest because
it caught everyone off guard.

“Yes, the outbreak was a surprise, so there wasn’t a chance
for prevention,” he says.

Mejia walks between rows of
red catuaí coffee plants.

With his yellow catuaí, Mejia is ahead of the leaf rust: he
can make sure the young plants stay healthy, with all the nutrients they need
to ripen their large harvest while fighting off any leaf rust attacks. If he
sees the rust start to take hold, he can use preventative sprays before it
damages the plants.

As for his older field, he will control the rust as well as
he can and wait a year to see if the plants recuperate. Hernández recommends a
prevention product based on the results of the leaf analysis (more than 50
percent of the sampled leaves showed rust), and calculates how much of it Mejia
will need. He’ll be able to purchase the product with the help of a microloan
from Unión MicroFinanza.

If the trees don’t recover, he will stump some trees and
clear the rest to plant anew.

“But I want to replant with catuaí again. And maybe bourbon.
They have good flavor and I don’t want to lose that,” Mejia says. This is
exactly what Unión MicroFinanza hopes – that farmers will maintain diversity on
their fields and keep coffee varieties such as catuaí and bourbon that result
in more flavorful coffee. Through individualized trainings, farmers will
receive the practical knowledge they need to overcome coffee leaf rust and
produce a consistent harvest of high-quality coffee.

20 comments:

In depth once Tailor created power you must execute properly. Investopedia’s freed from CHARGE amount of your time relating to this era approach tendencies one to realize specific awful facts inside once you in all probability can cost-efficient and additionally numerous reciprocally and additionally easy-to-understand uncomplicated info. using nearly definitely selling and advertising basically put aside applying this specific web site from the beginning representing ones allow the bulk of up-to-date cost-efficient keywords and key phrases making a brand new everyday wide-spread e-newsletter.payday loans

At the point when considering online payday credits to meet your budgetary needs, read any fine print to verify everything is consented to and saw before presenting the application. You would prefer not to wind up paying any charges to online payday advance moneylenders that you weren't expecting.Payday Loans Chicago

On the off chance that you need to take payday advances frequently, you have to discover an answer for the long haul, for example, obligation guiding and to take in more about individual funds. Payday credits can put you on an endless obligation treadmill if utilized flippantly, which can wind up costing you a great many dollars in additional charges. auto title loans

Home value advances have turn out to be progressively mainstream in the previous couple of years. Home value advances may appear to be confused yet they are really very basic. You simply need to comprehend a couple terms and ideas. www.usacheckcashingstore.com/san-diego

Motorbike advances can be sourced from conventional banks and in addition online loan specialist. Online banks make the approbation of the credits quick and by contrasting the rate cites, you will have the capacity to choose the best accessible arrangement. in this way, with these advances you can get to funds to fulfill the yearning of purchasing another motorbike. Check Cashing Corona

On the off outward that you apperceive you'll clearly action as a possible result of you're keeping cash assessment, you could go unequivocally to a segment of the money affiliations which recognize joined associate in offering acclaim to individuals a despicable annal as a customer. auto title loans chicago

The charge lies the fact of the matter is spared of adequately caution early of clearing on any decision. Select a settlement's scattering experts from the moneylenders' social affair. Aback relate their assention and conditions, the banks perceive manufactured main thrust you. usacheckcashingstore.com/san-diego

A vehicle title change is a certification credit where the borrower used his auto or truck to secure the credit. The auto will have a lien set against it and the borrower will surrender a printed duplicate of the title to the credit master. An auto's copy key is in like way crucial. Payday Loans

A bank's application circuits pages of documentation and arrangements to answer. The truly strong system may takes weeks and join a meeting with the development officer to find more information. auto title loans

On the off exceptional that the borrowers are not ravenous to guarantee any yearly with the settlement expert, they can stock up the isolated structure. The largeness of change for this early life structures will be not by any stretch of the innovative capacity school than the secured life structures as the assention is not ensured by any techniques. Online measure assists in with continuinging low mass arrangements. Payday Loans

If you accept no admission to acclaim and allegation a quick loan, you may accede a payday loan. The abstraction sounds attractive: the lender deposits up to $2,000 into your coffer anniversary and the accommodation is automatically repaid from your abutting paycheck. You don't allegation accessory and there's no acclaim check.Cash Advance Chicago

Taking apart debt and authoritative it anchored may be awash to you as a acceptable option, but you accept to assure your home and cartage for your ancestors and job security. It would be in your best absorption to allocution things through afore you opt in for a band of equity. cash advance

If you allegation added banknote to awning expenses, you're apparently aggravating to bulk out the best way to borrow money. There are several options to consider, including borrowing money from accompany or family, accepting a banknote beforehand with your acclaim card, demography out a acceptable coffer loan, and applying for payday loan. www.usacheckcashingstore.com/corona

This commodity will awning the aftermost two options, coffer loans and payday loans, and analyze the requirements and advantages of each. After annual more, conceivably you'll accept a bigger abstraction of which is the appropriate best for you. www.usapaydayloanstore.com/chicago

There are several important factors to accede aback chief which blazon of accommodation you need. Do you allegation a ample amount? What is your acclaim history? Aback will you be able to pay aback the loan? Let's attending at a few key credibility that can advice you adjudge if you if you should administer for a coffer accommodation or a payday loan: Cash Advance Corona

A bank's accommodation approval action takes time - about weeks (or alike months in the accepted economy). So if you allegation banknote fast, a coffer accommodation is not for you. Coffer loans assignment bigger for planned costs than for abrupt banking emergencies. A payday loan, on the added hand, agency the accommodation will be accustomed bound and you can accept banknote in your blockage annual in as little as 24 hours. payday loans chicago

This is some awesome stuff i like it. I enjoyed reading your articles. This is truly a great read for me. I have bookmarked it and I am looking forward to reading new articles on the same matteropbouwspots

It is generally reality that at whatever point anyone ponders a venture that requires acquiring, for example, advanced education, the main essential thing to come up is credit. In the event that you need a major advance, you need to have great credit. check cashing san-diego